Note: This article is about the challenges facing a family whose organic farm is threatened by new genetically modified, herbicide resistant crops and the herbicides used with them. The family did not want to reveal their names for fear of negative repercussions from their conventional farming neighbors. As a result, the family’s names and location of their farm have been kept confidential.

Laura often wakes up in the middle of the night fearing for the future of her family’s organic farm. Her fear is a cloud of toxic herbicides drifting over her farm, killing her crops and bees, threatening her family’s health, and ultimately forcing her family to leave their beloved farm.

Unfortunately, Laura’s nightmare scenario is a very real possibility with the proposed introduction of new crops that are genetically engineered to withstand sprays of dicamba and 2,4-D herbicides. As farmers plant these two GM crops, which are likely to receive approval soon by US government agencies, they will be spraying massive amounts of the two herbicides that are known to drift and kill “non-target” crops growing on nearby farms such as Laura’s.

Ecological diversityLaura’s organic farm is a treasure of biodiversity in a sea of large-scale, industrial GMO corn and soybean farms. Along with Laura, the farm is owned and operated by her husband and several relatives. The farm produces organic grains and vegetable seed and has been certified organic since the mid-1970s.

“Our farm predates GMO technology,” Laura says.

Laura and her family focus on harvesting the best crops, saving seeds from those crops, and planting those seeds generation after generation to produce varieties that are enduring and adapted to their regional environment.